Saturday, 24 June 2006

Big Bras d'Or to North Sydney (Nova Scotia)

The morning was a uniform dull grey. There was the occasional smattering of raindrops but it was dry when I set off at 7:30. I carried on along the road I had arrived on last night; the map I have isn't very detailed, and in the absence of any helpful road-signs I ended up back on highway 105 just before junction 16. A happy side-effect of this was that I soon found somewhere for breakfast - The Captain's Table. (I noticed on a packet of sweetener: "Take only on the advice of a physician"!)

I crossed the bridge to leave Seal Island and soon left the highway to take the quieter side road through Florence to Sydney Mines. There I went the Cape Breton Fossil Centre and the Sydney Mines Heritage Centre. The fossil museum was of special interest to me with my background in botany and for a small museum they had some interesting displays and exhibits. The reason for so many fossils being here is obviously the same reason as the coal mining industry - the carboniferous swamps and forests of 250 to 320 million years ago. The entrance fee also covered entry to the heritage museum housed next door in the former railway station building. I had a personal guided tour and heard the phrase "believe it or not" about 250 to 320 million times as well. It was quite interesting though.

From Sydney Mines I simply followed the road down to the coast and along into North Sydney - directly to the ferry terminal (http://www.marine-atlantic.ca/) I booked myself onto the 11 pm sailing across to Port Aux Basques in Newfoundland, then set about the various things I wanted to do in town. This turned out to be quite tricky as there is not much in North Sydney. No bike shop, no camping store. How hard can it be to buy a little notebook? Quite hard as it happens. I stocked up on food, then went to the library to type blog.

A tap on the shoulder meant I had been found again. John was standing there just as I was in contact with Kathy by email (She was using the wireless access at the ferry terminal) It seems our lives are permanently intertwined at the moment. There was a camping supplies shop in Sydney about 20 kilometres away, and they kindly offered to drive me over there in search of a new fuel-pump for my camping stove. By now it raining with a consistent monotony, so I was pleased I wasn't cycling today. I locked the bike up at the ferry terminal and we drove round to Sydney. It turned out to be a fruitless trip as the shop was closed and looked like it was likely to remain so permanently.

We did a tour of Sydney - uninspiring in the rain - and I'm sure that John a retired urban planner (Sim-City for real) can't help but cast a professional eye over places like this with dismay. We went to a small local museum in Sydney's oldest house - the Cossit House (http://museum.gov.ns.ca/ch/)

Bras d'Or (pron. brador), if my French serves me correct means 'arm of gold', so I wonder if that's where Labrador comes from as in La Bra[s] d'Or. Answers please on a postcard.

It was still raining when John and Kathy dropped me off back at the ferry terminal and it continued to rain heavily, so I decided not to venture into town but stayed and ate at the cafeteria in the ferry terminal; at least the fish and chips were freshly cooked and not sitting on a hotplate for hours. It gave me plenty of time to read up on Newfoundland and think about what I want to do... There was also a free internet terminal in the terminal, which although it was a pain to use, meant I could keep my blog up to date.

The departure was supposed to be at 11:30 - much later than I'm normally awake on this trip so I was feeling very weary. With the ferry arriving late, we didn't even start boarding until 12:30, which in one way was lucky as it was only raining lightly for the 40 minutes I was standing waiting outside. I was the first to board and lead the cars up the ramp onto the car deck. We finally set sail at 2 am, by which time I had had something to eat (Mr Sub - a SUBWAY clone) and retired to my dromitory bed. The bar didn't open, but I didn't need any alcoholic help to sleep. Most of the beds were vacant, and there was no-one else in my section. (I had asked for non-snoring) so I had a good 4 hour sleep until the lights came on and the announcements started.

Fare: Adult (one-way) $27, Bike $12, Dorm. bed $16. Total inc. tax = $57.40

Distance: 30.7 km
Cycling time: 1:59
Total distance: 2346.2 km